How in-step with the cultural climate of Enlightenment Edinburgh – or rural Ayrshire – was Burns at this time?
Burns has soaked up the ideas, the climate of his time, but he is an artist first and thinker second. However, there is a lot of ‘reason’ in Burns’ writings, not just ‘passions’ and emotion. That is often forgotten. Finally there were lots of intellectual and cultural disputes going on – no single ‘Enlightenment’ – about the political implications of Enlightenment ideas for example. So Burns is in the swirl of all those disputes too. It’s easy to reduce Burns to platitudes and quotations – “A man’s a man for aw’ that”. Are there other poems by Burns which you think should have greater recognition and more widely read? I am making a case for the ‘Verse Epistles’ or letters to fellow writers as important. “The Twa Dogs” is great social satire. Often neglected too are the series of great later poems and songs, after Tam O’Shanter. Those include the “Lament for Mary Queen of Scots”, “Elegy for Captain Matthew Henderson” and, of course, the exquisite last lyrics.
